Communication Games Between Teachers and Students at The Tertiary Level A Study Based On Transactional Analysis Theory
Communication Games Between Teachers and Students at The Tertiary Level A Study Based On Transactional Analysis Theory
Abstract
ﺗﻌﺛرت
Teaching and learning are often either accelerated or clogged up depending on the
rapport and responses of language strokes exchanged between teachers and students
concerned. Transactional Analysis (TA), which refers to how people interact with
each other, specifically, which ego state in me is talking to which ego state in you,
works as a tool to accelerate conducive teaching and learning environment in the
classroom and beyond. TA provides a language to explain why certain classroom
management techniques are going to be more effective than others and gives permis-
اﻟﺷدة
sion for the teacher to retain the humanness in the face of adversity. Based on the TA
theory, the researcher carried out this study among sixty seven students of English
for Academic Purposes (EAP) course at Green University of Bangladesh and it shows
the significant changes in the development of teaching and learning resulting from
the teacher’s understanding and application of the features of TA, namely, ego states,
transactional analysis proper, strokes, games etc. The findings demonstrate that TA
raises consciousness in the teacher, brings greater awareness into the classroom and
also creates a conducive learning environment to turn inattentive students into
attentive ones and academic failure into academic success. He also urges further
research on the same areas which are still unaddressed.
Keywords: communication, teachers and students, Transactional Analysis, learning
Introduction
دﻋم
Communication is an important tool in upholding good rapport and attain-
رﻗﺔ اﻟﺷﻌور
ing productivity at all levels of life. It makes us understand sentiment and feelings
ﺿﻐﯾﻧﺔ
of the others. Based on this communication, feelings of affection and hatred,
attitudes – positive or negative –towards others are developed. As Speak (2014)
states, “communication is the foundation of all human relationship. At first, strang-
ers start talking and getting to know each other, and then the relationships are
formed when they have more interaction and communication”(Para.3). It is actually
a process of transmitting information and mutual understanding from one person
to another. Communication can be verbal and non-verbal, social and professional,
aiming at serving different purposes. Rahman & Mohiuddin (2014) state, “Human
beings communicate with each other for many different personal and social purpos-
es” (p.45). The communication between teachers and students is very important to
create a conducive learning environment which ultimately helps students to attain
Adult
Parent Child
The parent ego state refers to some sorts of thoughts, feelings, and
behaviours that we learn or borrow from our parents and guardians. The parent ego
state can be of two types: it can be a) Nurturing or Benevolent, and b) Judgmental or
Critical. The Nurturing or Benevolent parent ego state is soft, loving, and permis-
sion giving, whereas the Judgmental or Critical ego state contains the prejudged
feelings, beliefs and thoughts that we learn from our caretakers or parents. The
parent ego state has its own sets of verbal repertoires like "should do” and
"shouldn't do” "must do" and "mustn't do". On the other hand, the Adult ego state
works like a data processing center which can gather and process extra information
important for making productive decision. In fact, each individual has his/her own
personality which can process data accurately, which sees, hears, thinks something
accordingly and can come up with solutions to problems based on the realities and
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Green University Review of Social Sciences, Volume 04, Issue 01, June-2018
not solely on our pre-judged feelings or childlike sentiments. The Adult ego state
comes with the language like –“I can understand what you are saying”, “That alter-
native seems most probable", and “I am going to complete this task” (Solomon 2003,
p.16). Again, the Child ego state refers to the area of our nature that is based on
thoughts, emotions, feelings and memoires of our childhood. The Child ego state
can be divided into two types - Free Child or Natural Child and Adapted Child or
Rebellious Child. According to Solomon (2003),
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Communication Games Between Teachers and Students at the Tertiary Level: A Study Based on Transactional Analysis Theory
The researcher thus feels the urge of adopting straight transaction policy and
providing tailor-made instructions and strokes to create conducive learning environ-
ment for academic success. He is interested to address the ways how the university
students respond to the various strokes provided by their teachers. The paper will,
therefore, investigate the performance and achievement of students based on their
responses to strokes. The study, thus, addresses the following questions:
Literature Review
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Green University Review of Social Sciences, Volume 04, Issue 01, June-2018
a. Straight Transactions
Adult: “Will you tell me what time it is?” Parent: “You have to go to bed right now!”
Adult: “Yes, it is four o’clock.” Child: “Please … Can’t I just finish this?
Figure 3:Straight Transactions, Solomon (2003)
b. Crossed Transactions
Adult: “Can you tell me what time it is?” Adult: “Can you tell me what time it is?”
Adapted Child: “Why are you always Critical Parent: “You’re always late, anyway,
rushing me?” would you even care?”
When someone gets a stroke that does not fit in with her or his preferred
stroke quotient, she or he is likely to ignore it or belittle it. If people receive
strokes from a certain behavior then people are likely to repeat it (p.6).
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Communication Games Between Teachers and Students at the Tertiary Level: A Study Based on Transactional Analysis Theory
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Green University Review of Social Sciences, Volume 04, Issue 01, June-2018
should be considered. Stuart & Agar (2011) presented the findings of a case study on
the use of Transactional Analysis (TA) in schools in England in their paper. The
paper provided a brief overview of TA and its relevance to secondary education –
for pupils, teachers and school improvement. They argued that self-awareness and
understanding of others enable individuals and groups to develop effective and
powerful communication and a better climate in the workplace. They found that
children, young people and teachers with TA skills have better self-awareness,
increased understanding of others and, as a consequence better relationships and
can demonstrate impact on attendance, attainment, personal and professional lives
and school climate overall. Panichi (2018) in his paper showed how the application
of Eric Berne’s Transactional Analysis theory to teacher-student interactions in the
foreign language classroom can provide useful insight for teachers. The paper
provided examples from the monolingual language classroom at university level in
Italy within a non-compulsory educational setting. It was argued that an increased
awareness of how teacher discourse affects student engagement in the learning
process can, in turn, lead to more effective teaching. The analysis examined a string
of typical teacher-learner interactions that occur over a specific period of time using
Berne’s PAC (Parent-Adult-Child) transactional model. In addition, by illustrating
the complexity and potency of classroom interactions, the examples provided a
greater understanding of the implications of classroom dynamics in terms of learner
development in general through the ongoing activation of learner autonomy,
critical thinking and pro-active behaviour. The outcomes of the analysis were
considered to be relevant to the theoretical fields of Language Awareness and
Learner Advising in Foreign Language Education and to intersect with the broader
field of Learner Counselling in education. While this paper is based on dynamics of
the foreign language classroom, the analysis can be viewed as being relevant to
teacher-student interactions in a variety of educational contexts as well.
The papers reviewed above have their own urge, interest and context; at the
same time, the present paper differs from the others for its selection and uniqueness.
Barrow (2015) applied transactional analysis (TA) in the classroom, and staffroom in
reducing conflict before offering observations about its broader relevance to
contemporary UK schooling whereas Barrow (2018) presented an inverted concep-
tualization of the ego state model, and considered that model with a new, specific
focus on implications for teachers and educational practice. Mei (2010) investigated
the relationship between education in Transactional Analysis theory and the Locus
of Control of college students and argued that the knowledge of Transactional Anal-
ysis helps students discover and explore their own potentials and liberate their
creativity. Stuart & Agar (2011) provided a brief overview of TA and its relevance to
secondary education – for pupils, teachers and school improvement while Panichi
(2018) in his paper showed how the application of Eric Berne’s Transactional Analy
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Communication Games Between Teachers and Students at the Tertiary Level: A Study Based on Transactional Analysis Theory
Methodology
Participants
Data Collection
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Green University Review of Social Sciences, Volume 04, Issue 01, June-2018
weeks to conduct the study. Although all the students had almost the same level of
education, there were differences in their understanding, responses and results.
The figure 5 shows that the students in control group attended the classes
on an average and the percentage ranges from 70% to 72%. This control group
represents the tradional classroom of this university and the students of the control
group received neither straight transaction nor conditional stroke nor positive
stroke. On the contrary, the figure 6 shows the attendance status of the experimental
group where the presence of students increased gradually from 70% to 80% in four
weeeks. As they received straight transaction, adult ego state behaviour and
positive strokes, they attended the classes with interests, motivation and expecta-
tions and the percentage becomes 10% more than the first class within four weeks.
Thus, the knowledge, practice and application of TA make a teacher effective to
support students and facilitate the learning process.
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Communication Games Between Teachers and Students at the Tertiary Level: A Study Based on Transactional Analysis Theory
The figure 7 reveals that the students in control group submit their assign-
ment in a consistent percentage; in the first week it was 50% and in the forth week it
was again 50% although it was 52% in the third week. But, the figure 8 shows that
in the first week 50% of the stuednts submitted their assignments, in the second
week it was 55%, in the third week it was 59% whereas in the forth week it was 62%.
Thus, it is very clear from figure 8 that continuous conditional strokes and straight
transactions motivate students to submit their asignment regularly and ensure the
submission of increasing and largerger number of students. From observation, the
teacher noticed the following scenerio-
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Green University Review of Social Sciences, Volume 04, Issue 01, June-2018
Control Group
Crossed Transactions
Parent :You must submit your assignment each Monday.
Child: Silent (Rebellious /Adapted)
Experimental Group
Conditional Strokes
Teacher: a) If you don’t submit your assignment regularly, one mark will be deduct-
ed for week.
b) If you submit your assignment each week, you will have one mark bonus for
regular submission.
Straight Transactions
Adult: I think you have prepared your assignment.
Adult: Yes Sir, (started submitting)
The findings, thus, unveil the fact that communication is a reciprocal way to
read, understand and recognize one another. In classroom settings, if a teacher has
the knowledge of TA and he/she applies his/her knowledge and competence, it
will help the teacher to know himself/herself as well as his/her students. It will also
make both the parties learn which ego state in one is talking to which ego state in
other. The knowing and understanding of each other, particularly students and
teachers lead them to build rapport between them, play a very fruitful communica-
tion game resulting in creating a conducive teaching and learning environment.
According to Human Kinetics (2018),
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Communication Games Between Teachers and Students at the Tertiary Level: A Study Based on Transactional Analysis Theory
Based on contexts and culture, conditional strokes can work well and the researcher
in this paper adopted conditional stroke. But the researcher strongly argues that
either conditional or unconditional stroke is much better than no strokes. Because,
stimulation comes from strokes and unless there are strokes, there will be no inspi-
ration and insight. The researcher finally recommends the knowledge, practice and
application of TA for teachers of all level as well as parents and guardians of
students.
Conclusion
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Green University Review of Social Sciences, Volume 04, Issue 01, June-2018
References
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Communication Games Between Teachers and Students at the Tertiary Level: A Study Based on Transactional Analysis Theory
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